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In America, we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Pretty radical stuff. We fought a Revolution demanding these rights. Many fought and died defending them. Put forward 240 years ago, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution form the basis of the longest-lived experiment in self-governance in the history of the world. It's worked well so far; but once again it's under attack by financial and industrial cartels that have successfully captured the government, legal system and courts. Now these institutions do the bidding of these cartels.

Only history will tell us how long this American experiment endures, and whether the past two decades of failed government -- in which the executive, legislative and judicial branches have been horribly transformed into the handmaidens of these cartels -- will undo the Founders' vision.

I'm glad we live in a world where more than one country has a 'Minister of State for Happiness' or equivalent position.

The absence of a reasonable level of happiness means that all of our striving would, ultimately, prove to be in vain.

It would be an unsustainable world where people spend their entire lives 'fighting the good fight' -- only to receive little or no reward at retirement and at points along the way towards retirement.

Why Hope (for happiness)? = Why Try? + Why Work?

Workers in the former Soviet Union used a phrase to illustrate this point; "As long as they pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work."

And so, due to a lack of national happiness (caused by economic hardship, in their case) the whole corporation formerly known as the USSR, collapsed.

It should serve as a warning to every country that the final and most profound metric for human beings is happiness -- everything from worker productivity, to corporate profit, to the ambient level of law and order in a society, to the success of an entire civilization -- all of it hinges on the happiness metric.

So far, only Bhutan with their decades-old GNP metric (Gross National Happiness) the UAE, Venezuela, and the United Nations, have given this profound societal element serious consideration.

http://www.gnhcentrebhutan.org/what-is-gnh/the-story-of-gnh/

Very recently, the state of Madhya Pradesh will be the first state in India to create Department of Happiness.

We employ 'reverse engineering' to our study of (all states of) matter in the universe, to the study of time, and to the study of the various lifeforms on this planet -- it follows that we should use reverse engineering to study and measure our civilization, our societies and our cultures.

By 'working it back' (regardless of the results, pro tempore) -- Bhutan, the UAE, Venezuela and the state of Madhya Pradesh in India -- have a huge advantage in exploiting the data from the most profound human metric of all.

What is a quantum—I mean a real quantum? It is the effect of the “cause”, so-to-speak, of Zeno of Elea.

It is the point where difference disappears, and all entangles into the absolute Unity of infinity. It is the common underpinning hiding behind the separate masks of ideology, religion, nation, individual—even trees and rocks, all the differentiated persona and objects of the world that appears about us.

It is love above hatred, sheltering difference from ultimate destruction like a parent carefully watching over a child but giving it freedom of movement. This is so that the battlers themselves may retire into the maturity of collaboration of the upper common cause rather than their petty sectarian and very finite perception of it. [See it in Nature, here for example: “Turning mortal enemies into allies? Ants can,” http://phys.org/news/2016-03-mortal-enemies-allies-ants.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-nwletter]

When enemies become organs—not having their individualities erased by a competitor, but encouraged and shared for the good of the whole. When happiness becomes Eudemonic—using one's special talents in the service of others instead of for the destruction of those different in a visceral hedonism of anger and hate rationalized as higher calling.

Then, and only then, will the quantum of happiness—the window of Eternity—shine into our once drab and blood-stained world and make of it a paradise of happiness in Its own image…

As the article suggest "happiness" cannot be measured through economic indicators.
Happiness is an emotion, it indicates contentment.

Unfortunately our present human attitude is so distorted, corrupted by our inherently self-serving, self-justifying and greedy nature that we cannot find any true signs of "contentment", "happiness" in our lives.
We even managed to destroy even the basic building block of society, where contentment, happiness came instinctively: the traditional family model.

Thus if we want to get some sense of what "contentment" looks like we have to turn to nature, researching the natural system around us in greater detail in a systemic manner.
The whole system is based on balance and homeostasis as without them life and positive development would not be possible.
And this crucial balance, homeostasis is sustained by the selfless, mutually complementing cooperation of all comprising elements regardless of their size, apparent importance.
All those elements only take for themselves what is necessary for them based on their true natural necessities and in turn they contribute to the whole collective with 100% of their best abilities.
Those elements do not become equal, uniform, it is specifically through their maintained uniqueness, specialty that they can contribute to the collective most optimally.

The overall happiness, contentment of the system is based on the quantitative and qualitative strength of the mutual interconnections the comprising elements create among themselves.
This is how nature evolved from the initial "cancer-like" singular cell organisms towards multi-cell organisms that provide a qualitatively much higher level existence.

And today when we evolved into a globally interconnected and interdependent human system this is what we are facing, making the next step of human evolution from the "cancer-like", egoistic, selfish and greedy "single cell humanity" to a mutually complementing "multi-cellular" human "super-organism".
This has nothing to do with the type of trade, economy we use. Moreover before we establish the proper interconnections in between is, finding the perfect role for each and every persona we will not be able to decide "necessities", "optimal contribution", or the right trade and economic models.
Everything needs to start with the right interconnections, mutual cooperation everything else will follow on from that.

The rest of the World has some experience in this sort of thing, and the results are not good. In the beginning nations develop a contributory mood - people enjoy the sense of building something up. But then after a short while their mood becomes extractive and everybody tries to grab as much of wealth as possible at the expense of the others. Unhappiness ensues.

The only way to ensure the happiness remains is structure your 'systems of power' in a way that prevents abuse, by individuals, by those who are entrusted with power and possibly most importantly by the institutions of power themselves.

It is this last scenario that has the most effect - consider in America the capture of government and culture by business. while in China government has captured both business and culture, and in your bad neighbourhood of the middle east - culture (Islam) has captured both government and business. No capture of any sort should be occurring.

At the end of the day happiness is like your bank balance, it is a result of other things and not a thing in itself. Any attempt to directly influence your bank balance will typically be unsuccessful. It is the whole culture that needs to be re-invented by society and I doubt the UAE is any different. Trying to delegate authority to a department of happiness will miss the mark because the responsibility for this lies at the very top.

See also:

In the first year of his presidency, Donald Trump has consistently sold out the blue-collar, socially conservative whites who brought him to power, while pursuing policies to enrich his fellow plutocrats.

Sooner or later, Trump's core supporters will wake up to this fact, so it is worth asking how far he might go to keep them on his side.

A Saudi prince has been revealed to be the buyer of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," for which he spent $450.3 million. Had he given the money to the poor, as the subject of the painting instructed another rich man, he could have restored eyesight to nine million people, or enabled 13 million families to grow 50% more food.

While many people believe that technological progress and job destruction are accelerating dramatically, there is no evidence of either trend. In reality, total factor productivity, the best summary measure of the pace of technical change, has been stagnating since 2005 in the US and across the advanced-country world.

The Bollywood film Padmavati has inspired heated debate, hysterical threats of violence, and a ban in four states governed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – all before its release. The tolerance that once accompanied India’s remarkable diversity is wearing thin these days.

The Hungarian government has released the results of its "national consultation" on what it calls the "Soros Plan" to flood the country with Muslim migrants and refugees. But no such plan exists, only a taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign to help a corrupt administration deflect attention from its failure to fulfill Hungarians’ aspirations.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants European leaders to appoint a eurozone finance minister as a way to ensure the single currency's long-term viability. But would it work, and, more fundamentally, is it necessary?

The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel comes in defiance of overwhelming global opposition. The message is clear: the Trump administration is determined to dictate the Israeli version of peace with the Palestinians, rather than to mediate an equitable agreement between the two sides.